The consequences for then 20-year old Abdelhak Nouri were catastrophic: two days after being resuscitated during a test match in 2017, neurologists declared large areas of his brain to be irreversibly damaged.

Why why why are consequences only drawn after such a devastating event? Evidence has been known long enough that “clearing the airways” is unnecessary for lay bystanders but that a focus MUST be placed on chest compressions and on the EARLY integration of a defibrillator.

I’ve been talking about this event in many courses since then but have only been able to guess what happened. It seems my guesses were correct, which makes me sad.